


Cactus (in the bus)

by boredpanda18



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Bus Crushes, Does this count as enemies to lover, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:48:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21687847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boredpanda18/pseuds/boredpanda18
Summary: Jongin did not know that the person he is arguing with online is the person he's been crushing on. Conveniently, they are sitting right beside each other.Alternatively, Jongin trying to ask Kyungsoo out on a bus ride home while arguing with a stranger on the phone.
Relationships: Do Kyungsoo | D.O/Kim Jongin | Kai
Comments: 29
Kudos: 233





	Cactus (in the bus)

Jongin goes up into the bus alone in small placid steps. Yawning, he sat by the window near the center of the vehicle. He rests his head on the backrest.

  
The bus heading towards Eulji-ru is almost vacant most of the time. Not many people go towards the rural town. It’s an agricultural village, nothing much of a tourism prowess to attract people from Seoul. Jongin supposes that there’s that big mansion near his house that still ferments kimchi on old earthenware that some students go to learn the culinary past of their country, but it’s mostly just a fast stop-over. That’s just that. Even the population of the town is measly and sparse, many opting to continue their parent’s legacy on the farm instead of pursuing a degree in Seoul. Jongin did not even know what he was thinking when he enrolled on a business school in the city, he must be tired of his monotonous life and seeing the same set of faces from when he was still a child. The tennis scolarship he got also helped with the expenses.

  
That day though, the bus was almost full. Jongin had overheard from the conversation of two highschool students sitting behind him that there’s a festival happening on a town before his. When the bus stops on a waiting shed and a family entered, Jongin places his backpack beside him hoping to offer it to a certain someone when his stop will be reached. He wouldn’t want this certain someone to stand or wait for the next bus which would not arrive until after another hour.

  
Jongin busies himself on his phone with a puzzle game but then a notification dings displaying that there’s a reply to a tweet he made. It is curious, he barely tweets and have lesser engagements. It was not a personal account, he does not have a personal account on the site. It was mainly a profile he made to follow meme accounts, certain youtubers he watches, and other random people he follows back who followed him first.

  
The reply came from someone with a penguin display picture who uses his full name as his handle.

  
@DohKyungsoo

  
“Doh Kyungsoo” Jongin murmurs, checking first the name before the reply. When he checks the reply though, his mood sours. It’s a reply from a comment he made about how the developer of the Pokémon games are getting lazy at making the games, settling for a mediocre repetitive formula. This Doh Kyungsoo guy is one of the company’s avid defender.

  
Jongin’s fingers furiously types a fast reply. 

  
_“Be my guest if you want to buy a game that is half-baked on a full price.”_ Jongin replies. He would normally ignore conversation that would lead into an inevitable argument but Jongin is bored so he took the bait. 

  
Jongin looks up and saw that the stop of the person he’s waiting to arrive is getting close. He nicknamed this stranger ‘Cactus’ because the first time he saw him, he was holding a pot of cactus. Not much of a backstory with the name but Jongin stick with it. Jongin developed a crush on Cactus fast once he started realizing they take the same bus every Friday night. Jongin had started anticipating seeing him on the bus and would be happy just by seeing a glimpse of him. It was just a happy crush, nothing serious.

  
There’s still some empty seats left but Jongin still put down the bag he placed beside him hoping that Cactus would choose to sit beside him. When the bus started loading the passengers, his phone dings with another notification probably from that company defender, but Jongin was busy scanning the faces of the people that enters. There’s a lot more than usual but that’s to be expected. A girl is about to sit on the seat beside him but Jongin, on reflex, places a hand on the seat.

  
“Sorry, this seat is taken.” Jongin says with an apologetic smile. The girl did not mind, walking forward to go to an unoccupied seat behind the bus. The last to enter was the cutie he’s been crushing on. Jongin scans the bus one last time and he thanks the heaven that the only remaining seat unoccupied was the one beside him. Cactus’s face was buried on the phone on his hand, walking aimlessly. When he looks up, his eyes lands on his. There was a flash of recognition on the boy’s round orbs and then a blush emerges. It was fast but Jongin and his ego saw it. Jongin smirks on his head. Cactus sat beside him, no words exchanged between the two. They are still strangers.

  
Does it count as an acquaintance if they don’t know each other’s name but already are familiar with each other’s face?

  
Maybe not.

  
Still strangers.

  
This was the only time they ever get to meet, on the bus ride home. His crush’s stop would be on the town before his. The one where the festival is happening. Cactus is garbed in a uniform from one of those academy in Ulsan (Jongin had quickly asked his friends when he saw some of those students wearing the exact same uniform visiting their school). Cactus is also wearing the roundest glasses. It makes him look too soft and Jongin has a thing for soft boys.

  
Cactus is just a happy crush that preoccupies his time on the bus but sometimes Jongin would wonder if he did ask him out. Cactus has a habit of latching on his mind even on non-Fridays. He had plans to talk to the boy, maybe ask his name and for his number. Maybe he could ask him out for a coffee? Does he like coffee, maybe he’s a tea person? Would that be too forward? Even if it’s not, it does not matter since Jongin is too much of a wimp to follow through with his plan. His confidence is inconsistent, sometimes he’d be so arrogant and think he’s the shit, but sometimes he would feel like shit. What would he offer Cactus anyways? He’s just a broke college student from a small farm town. Judging by the school his crush is going to, he is well off and could easily find a better boy or girl for him with his looks. One that is not as financially unstable as him who has an aimless future. He doesn’t even know if his crush is straight or gay or bi. Even if he likes boys, there’s no guarantee that feelings would be mutual. 

  
Right now though, even if he’s sitting beside Cactus, Jongin still has no courage to initiate a conversation. His mind formulates for a good opener.

  
_“Do you play Pokemon?”_ He is supposed to hate that brand for now.

  
_“Nice weather isn’t it?”_ That’s too lame.

  
_“Hello, my name is Jongin.”_ That’s too awkward.

  
_“I heard that there’s a festival on your town.”_ That...that is actually a good conversation opener. Not too revealing of his intention. Jongin repeats the sentence on his mind, practicing it again and again. He hopes he wouldn’t stutter. He had nonchalantly asked cute guys to dates before, so why is he stressing about this? This was their first time sitting beside each other and this is his golden opportunity. He would regret it if he would not act out now.

“I heard that there’s a festival on your town.” Jongin finally speaks. The hard part is over, initiating the conversation is half the job. Jongin waits for a reply, and then waits, and waits. However, it did not come. Jongin slighty looks to the side and realizes that there’s an earphone plugged on both of Cactus’s ears. His attention is fully on his phone. He is watching a cute puppy video. Jongin sighs, head leaning down to the window beside him. There’s no way to talk to cutie now. Jongin bits his lips and went back to his phone, disappointment nesting in his gut. 

  
There is a reply from this Doh Kyungsoo guy that he almost forgot.

  
_“I will buy the game and I will enjoy it. I’m not a bitter bandwagon hater.”_

  
There is also another reply after that and it was a series of angry emojis. Jongin rolls his eyes. He’s sure that he’s talking to a 12 year old, and he would not want any more of his time wasted. He decides that the best offence is ignoring him, so he just likes the angry emojis comment before turning the notification to the conversation off. 

  
Jongin could then hear Cactus beside him huffing and then he mumbles.

  
“Why would he like my comment?”

  
His crush looks irked with his brows knitted together as he typed something on his phone. A ding sounded on Jongin’s phone and when he checks what it was, the Doh Kyungsoo kid is now following him. Why would you follow someone you’re about to argue with? Jongin shrugs and was about to click on Doh Kyungsoo’s profile when a blue pop-up signals that he has a message request. Jongin checks his messages and saw Kyungsoo trying to message him. This kid is persistent, Jongin is gonna give him that.

  
@DohKyungsoo: You should not bash a game that you did not even play, that’s really immature.

  
Jongin rolls his eyes before he types his reply.

  
@zkdlin: Why are you so lean on protecting the game? Are they paying you or something?

  
@DohKyungsoo: Then why are you bandwagon hating? You haven’t even played the new game?

  
@zkdlin: I don’t want to spend my money. They did not even put all the Pokémon in it. How are you gonna have a motto of ‘gotta catch them all’ if you can’t even catch them all! The developers are getting lazy cause they know they’re still getting money because of their brand name.

@zkdlin: i’m gonna block you.

  
Jongin clicks the account and immediately blocks Kyungsoo. He could go cry to the wall for all he cares, it won’t talk back. He had said his piece and he’s not going to fight with a kid online because of a Pokémon game. He could then hear his crush beside him growl exasperatedly.

“This idiot actually blocked me!” Cactus grumbles. Jongin maintains a blank facade but he’s actually chuckling on the inside because his crush is adorable when he is angry. Cactus looks at him and caught him staring.

  
He could see a telltale blush on his crush’s face. He removed his earphones.

  
“Sorry, I was just arguing with this person on the internet and he kind of blocked me instead of hearing my side.”

  
Jongin could not believe it. Cactus is talking to him and this is the first actual sentence he had given him. Jongin is tongue-tied and his mind is not prepared to reply with anything coherent. It is all jumbled mess, and before he could answer anything, his crush was already sliding the earphones back to his ears.

  
Jongin wants to bang his head on the window because he had just missed his chance and he only got himself to blame because it was his crush who initiated it in the first place and he did not reply. 

  
“How do you even pronounce his name. Zee-key-dee-lyn? Ugh, I should have blocked him first.” Cactus mumbles quietly. Well, he thinks he’s being quiet but since he has his earphones on, his voice volume is louder than what he thinks and Jongin hears him say his account’s name. 

  
Oh.

  
And then it clicks, this Doh Kyungsoo person he was arguing with may not be a kid but his crush. Jongin opens his phone again, his heartbeat escalates. He checks his block list and unblocks Kyungsoo then went straight to his profile. The profile picture was that of a penguin and the header was that of a sky, no clues there. Jongin subtly tries to look at his crush’s phone screen and realized he was no longer typing or on twitter but back to watching puppy videos on youtube. 

  
Jongin scrolls down Kyungsoo’s account to see if he could see anything that would link him to his crush. It could’ve been just a mistake. He could have had misheard what Cactus said. He got nothing since the guy mostly retweets gaming announcements, occasionally some picture of idols but no selfies or even a cactus or anything at all.

  
He got his name though. Doh Kyungoo. There’s power in a name. Jongin installs instagram, he doesn’t have an account there but he would need it for stalking purposes so he automatically signs up for it and searches Doh Kyungsoo. There are four results. The first two were private, the third one has a picture of an old balding guy, while the last one was a picture of a penguin. It’s a different penguin, but still a penguin nonetheless. It is easy for Jongin to click the fourth account.

  
And there they are, pictures of cactus. It seems that Kyungsoo is selling the succulents online. Sometimes there’s pictures of two puppies, a black one and a gray one. He clicked it and saw the caption saying they are named Ink and Pepper. Meokmool and Hoochu. Jongin scrolls down and then see another clue that would link Kyungsoo to his crush, there is a picture of a group of students, all with the same uniform as his crush. He was not in the picture though so he scrolls down some more. This Kyungsoo guy does not seem to like posting his pictures. There were pictures of foods, sometimes sceneries but nothing conclusive. Jongin was about to give up and then he saw the picture. Cactus. Not the plant, his Cactus. His crush. Jongin could feel his heartbeat getting strong again as he clicked on the picture. Cactus - Kyungsoo - was smiling while doing a thumbs up sign. Jongin bit his lips to prevent himself from squealing. It would be embarrassing to scream especially considering the cause of his emotional outburst is just sitting right beside him. He finally knows his name. Not only that, he now know his social media. He can stalk his profile if he would miss seeing him during the weekdays. 

  
Jongin could not believe his luck.

  
Jongin could then hear a chuckle, it almost sounds like a chime. Kyungsoo was laughing from a video he is watching. Jongin smiles, Kyungsoo must really like dogs. He have dogs himself and he could imagine Kyungsoo cooing at his pets if he ever takes him home. Jongin realizes he is getting ahead of himself, thinking about the future. Kyungsoo is supposed to be just a happy crush.

  
Kyungsoo laughs again, three soft hahahas and his knees bumped and touched Jongin’s. Jongin felt it but did not retract his knee. Even if there’s denim and linen separating their skin, Jongin could still feel the burn of the contact. Kyungsoo did not move after laughing. He must have not realized their knees touching or Kyungsoo must be the type of person who is not conscious about skinship.

  
Jongin sees an update on Kyungsoo’s instagram dating to one whole year ago. Kyungsoo was still wearing his old glasses, the bigger and rounder glasses than what he is currently wearing. When Jongin first saw and started developing a crush on Kyungsoo, he always had those glasses on. Jongin kind of missed it.

  
He double tapped the picture to leave a heart. Kyungsoo wouldn’t even know that it’s him, all he would get is a notification of a blank account liking an old photo of his. Through his peripheral, he gauges Kyungsoo’s reaction but he seems to have ignored it or he might not have gotten any notification.

  
Jongin got into a problem again thinking how he would open a conversation with Kyungsoo to ask him out. Jongin gazes out and they are passing the peach field of Myunggun, and soon enough Kyungsoo would go down without any progress to their relationship.

  
He could talk to him through twitter. That’s his only option, and so he did.

  
@zkdlin: Hello, I unblocked you. Sorry for that. Can we be friends?

  
Kyungsoo got the message and types his reply after a while.

  
@DohKyungsoo: You’re weird

  
Jongin read the message and was about to feel disappointed when another message arrives.

  
@DohKyungsoo: But I guess we can be friends if you want to but this is such a plot twist.

  
Jongin chuckles.

  
@zkdlin: So I guess your name is Kyungsoo. I’m Jongin btw.

  
@DohKyungsoo: That’s a cool name. I have a crush that is also called Jongin.

  
Jongin blinks. Kyungsoo has a crush that is also named Jongin. Of course Kyungsoo would have crushes, but what are the chances that they would have the same name? Kyungsoo would have no way of knowing his name is Jongin. He had never been with anybody on the bus before that might have dropped his name for Kyungsoo to hear. He for sure hasn’t introduced himself. Well, it’s just a crush so it’s nothing to fret about. Still, he couldn’t help but be curious. 

  
@zkdlin: Cool, how is it going with that crush?

  
@DohKyungsoo: Bad, I rarely see him. I could not for the life of me talk to him or even just look at him. I tried to talk to him earlier but I completely froze and put my earphones on, not even waiting for him to reply. 

  
@zkdlin: Is he your classmate or workmate?

  
@DohKyungsoo: No, we’re practically strangers. The only reason why I know his name is that he had his tennis jersey on one time with his full name printed.

  
@zkdlin: Did you search his social media?

  
@DohKyungsoo: Yeah, I did but I did not find anything. No facebook, no instagram, no twitter, no anything.

  
@zkdlin: That’s tough. Do you have any common friends?

  
@DohKyungsoo: Most probably not 

  
Jongin is getting mixed signals but the more he talks with Kyungsoo, the more he’s getting sure that the Jongin they are talking about is him. He has that tennis jersey with his full name on. What more clues does he need? Every puzzle pieces is coming together perfectly. Jongin decides to push his chances.

  
@zkdlin: Would it be weird if I say I have a crush named Kyungsoo too?

  
@DohKyungsoo: Lmao. What a coincidence. My crush is sitting right beside me in a bus right now and I’m acting like I don’t even know him.

  
Jongin read the message again and again, not even trying to conceal a smile. He’s a hundred percent sure he’s the Jongin Kyungsoo is crushing.

  
@zkdlin: Would it be weirder if I say I’m sitting beside my crush too? He’s busy with his phone but I really want to ask him out for a date.

  
Jongin looks to the side and he was met with Kyungsoo looking at his phonescreen then staring right back up at him with his wide eyed look. Kyungsoo’s phone is on his hand displaying the same message conversation as him.

  
Kyungsoo removes his earphones from his ears and smiles shyly. 

  
“I heard that there’s a festival on your town.” Jongin finally says, and this time Kyungsoo is hearing him perfectly.”We should totally check out the stalls together.” 

  
There would be game corners they could try to win stuffed toys from. There would be food stalls selling rice chewy, dried sweet plums, or peach sorbets. They could even have their palms read. 

  
“There are fireworks too.” Kyungsoo adds.

  
“Would you want to see the fireworks together?”

  
“I’d love that” Kyungsoo nods.

  
The bus stopped to Kyungsoo’s town. Kyungsoo stands up and looks at him expectantly. Jongin follows the smaller boy, sliding his phone back to his pocket. He can’t help but feel butterflies on his stomach imagining more future scenario with him and Kyungsoo. Both of them went down the bus together.

**Author's Note:**

> I like to write short fluffy stuff whenever I get stressed too much, it's therapeutic. Kudos and Comments are appreciated. Talk to me on twitter @blameDyo


End file.
